Instagram has announced that it will now allow users to recover deleted posts. As of February 2, whenever a user (or their mischievous toddler) deletes a post, instead of being yeeted into oblivion, content will be moved to a recently deleted folder, where it will exist for a short time before being permanently deleted.

How long does content stay in the folder?

Archived Stories will only stay in the folder for 24 hours; posts, videos, Reels, IGTV videos, and unarchived Stories will get a bit longer — 30 days.

Deleted content can be accessed by going to Settings > Account > Recently Deleted. Once in the folder, you will be asked to verify your identity, then you can either recover or permanently delete items.

Helping fight hackers

The new feature is designed to help fight against hackers. In the past, hackers often took over popular accounts, deleting posts and replacing them with their own content. Once these posts were deleted, they were gone forever. But with the new feature, it is more difficult for hackers to wipe accounts entirely. Once a user is able to recover their account, they can now easily restore deleted content.

Instagram stated:

We’re rolling out Recently Deleted, a feature to help you manage your content. We know this is something people have been asking for and now, for the first time, you can review and restore deleted content in the Instagram app. We also added protections to help prevent hackers from compromising your account and deleting posts you’ve shared. 

We know hackers sometimes delete content when they gain access to an account, and until now people had no way of easily getting their photos and videos back. Starting today, we will ask people to first verify that they are the rightful account holders when permanently deleting or restoring content from Recently Deleted.